EA Q1 – Battlefield 3 Premium sold over 1.3M subscriptions

EA has announced its financials results for Q1 of its current fiscal year, noting its Battlefield 3 Premium Service has 1.3 million subscriptions.

EA Q1 – AT A GLANCE

Battlefield 3 Premium Service has 1.3 million subscriptions.

Battlefield 3 and FIFA 12 together sold through over 2 million units.

SWTOR has less than 1M subscribers; F2P option goes live in November.

Pre-orders for Madden 13 are up 25% year-over-year.

Dead Space 3 pre-orders are five times higher than Dead Space 2.

FIFA Ultimate Team contributed over $30 million in net digital revenue.

Origin has over 21M users; sales through the service contributed 60% of revenue.

SimCity Social currently has over 10 million MAUs.

EA made $1.3B in digital games sales in last 12 months; $400M came from consoles.

The firm is aiming to have the next Battlefield product released during FY 2014, which starts March 31, 2013.

EA also announced in the release news, which broke just before its financials, that SWTOR would go free-to-play in November. It will allow players to choose a $14.99 premium monthly subscription or the free-to-player version which allows upgrades with in-game currency.

During the call to investors, CEO John Riccitiello called the “sales of SWTOR disappointing”, but it was offset by sales of the Battlefield 3 Premium Service.

Star Wars: The Old Republic has less than a million subscribers, at present, and the firm said 40% of players claimed they didn’t like paying a subscription, and many said they would come back if it went F2P.

EA announced during its Q3 FY12 call the sub base went from 1.7 million subscribers to 1.3 million, which is a 25% decline.

Pre-orders for Madden 13 are up 25% year-over-year, FIFA Ultimate Team contributed over $30 million in net digital revenue during the quarter, and the firm’s SimCity Social currently has over 10 million MAUs.

The firm also reiterated earlier news of its deal with Nexon to publish FIFA Online in Korea later this fiscal year. FIFA World Class Soccer and EA SPORTS FIFA Online 2 generated more than $25 million in digital net revenue in Asia in Q1.

EA’s division of games and services for mobile phones and tablets have generated a 37% year-over-year increase in digital net revenue, and catalog continued to “outperform expectations” with Battlefield 3 and FIFA 12 together selling through over 2 million units in the first quarter.

Origin currently has over 21 million users, including 9 million mobile users, and the service has signed agreements with 57 independent developers to-date. Sales of digital through the service contributed over 60% of revenue.

“We have established an unmatched diversity in our business with multiple brands performing across several channels, business models and geographies,” said CEO John Riccitiello. “This allows us to drive profitable growth in a rapidly transforming marketplace for games.”

The firm has also announced a $500 million share repurchase.

Total revenue for the firm came in at $491 million, compared with $524 million year-over-year, while net income dropped to $201 million, compared with $221 million during Q1 FY12.

Net Digital Revenue for Q1 came in at $342 million compared to $232 million during the same quarter in 2011. Packaged goods and other revenue hits $592 million, compared to $647 million year-over-year.

Label president Frank Gibeau added the firm made $1.3 billion through digital games sales in the last 12 months – $400 million of which is associated with consoles.

Mobile revenue was $69 million, up 21% compared to $57 million yoy – over 80% of revenue came from this sector. Combined with social games, the sector generated close to $1.3 billion in 12-month revenues.

Platform revenue came in as follows:

Xbox 360 – $292 million – down 15% yoy from $345 million

PS3 – $267 million – down 15 yoy from $308 million

Wii – $8 million – down 81% from $42 million yoy

PS2 – $2 $3 down 33% from yoy

Total conolse revenue was $ 569 million, down 18% year-over-year from $698 million.

Sony handhelds sales for the firm came in at $10 million, down 9% from $11 million in Q1 FY12, and sales of games for Nintendo handhelds were up 13% to $13 million compared to $8 million the year prior.

PC sales were also up 35% to $276 million from $205 million the year before.